In making playable magnetic tapes it is common practice in the studio to record the individual scenes totally or partially in random series on tape and later to record the same onto a second tape in the correct sequence with eventual cuts or other changes. For this purpose two tape machines are required, whereby a plurality of search runs, intersection point determinations and the like have to be carried out. To automate such mixing operations it is known to provide a code track in running direction of the tape which contains continuous information about the length of the tape, the playing time of the tape etc. With the aid of this code track a master tape on a feeding machine is brought into the correct time and space relationship with the slave tape on a cutting machine by means of corresponding electronic circuits. This method is very exact but is very expensive, because in addition to the control, a code generator and two decoding means are required, and both machines must be fitted for recording and play-back of the code track.
A more simplified method is known consisting essentially of the two video machines which are manually moved to the intersection position at which point they remain idle. When the cutting signal is given both machines move in a reverse direction a predetermined tape length and then are automatically switched to the normal playing operation. After the predetermined tape length is run the cutting machine switches to recording. The disadvantage of this method is the inexactness of the timely positioning of the master tape and the second tape (slave tape), because the uptake and slowing speeds when reversing the tape are not controllable and change from machine to machine according to its parameters and in the same machine during operation.